The last few weeks since my All Wheels Extreme trip have been non-stop, after facing plenty of ups and a few downs, I’m happy to have made it back to the surface!

It all started not even week or so home from Ohio! I was home and starting to catch up with friends and beat the heat. I decided to meet up with my good friends Adrianne and Sam for a swim at Barton Springs pool. After a nice long swim, we parted ways, and in the midst of carrying my pile of clothes towards the exit, my phone rang on vibrate and I totally fumbled for it in the pile of stuff I was carrying and splash! It fell right in Thanks to a group of little girls swimming around exploring with goggles, they volunteered to fish my iPhone out for me. After a day or two of trying the bag of rice trick and no luck, I was able to get it replaced for only $50! Thank God for Apple Care Plus insurance!!! phew!!!! That was kind of sucky few days of not having a phone, thankfully I had backed it up just in time!

Carrying on, I believe it was a day after the phone incident, a bunch of us got together for a session at the Walnut Creek Pumptrack. It’s so peaceful out there, but occasionally when you’re trying to get psyched up to hit the jumps, you need some music to help you through! My gal friend Dani and I always crack each other up whenever we ride at pumptrack together. Before we do trains through main line we always try to belt out a fun-get-psyched tune. Anything ridiculous from our favorite Salt N’ Pepa “Slide, Push it..” straight into making guitar sounds from Black Sabbath “Supernaut” haha we do our best to keep the energy up and the laughs going each lap, anything helps when you’re attempting to beat the heat and get some good runs in. We were having a great session for awhile until Dani did a sweet toboggan over the first one in main, got way stoked, and over shot the second jump a little far right, almost going over the berm. She bailed and put her leg down a little weird and ghost rode her bike. I thought she was alright because she seemed to be laughing, but when we ran over to help her up, we realized her leg was pretty jacked. A bunch of us helped carry her down the trail and out to the car, gave her a harmonica’s worth of cigarettes to puff on to feel better. (haha even though I don’t smoke and can’t stand cigarettes, I felt like this was a more than appropriate occasion to encourage smoking multiple stogies at once haha and in my car no less her leg looked jacked!!) We loaded her in the back of my Subaru “forester”, which was now converted into a rally car style ambulance blasting Metallica “Motorbreath” on full blast to the hospital. It would take a few days to find out for sure what she broke. Bummer!

Photo by Octavio Octurno from Yeah Zine issue 5 Release jam

So I end up going to my first ever pilates class the next morning with Adrianne, super rad! And as I’m leaving feeling awesome, my cousin Melanie hit me up with some sad news; our grandpa Yayo had passed away. I was floored by the news as I had just spoken to him a week before. ‘walked my bike home that day.

The next day I also got a phone call that my friend and Etnies teammate Aaron Ross was feeling under the weather and was supposed to be spending the day with some cancer kids at a local children’s hospital. Since the kids immunes systems are already challenged it’s best to keep anyone not 100% good health from getting too close. This actually was amazing way for me to keep my mind off of grandpa bring some excitement and smiles to some kids facing some real challenges. Aaron hooked me up with a bunch of Odyssey and Sunday stickers to pass out along with whatever Etnies and DK stickers I had. It was definitely uplifting to share and put some smiles on some new faces, these kids go through a lot, and having them do some little bike races in the hospital courtyard was a lot of fun. One kids dad even joined in haha good times!

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After my visit with the kids, I got home to a package of goodies from Freegun Underwear! There were some swimsuits, bras and underwear, thank you Fat Tony for the hookup! So with only a few hours to kill before work and then getting on a plane to NY for grandpa, I figured I’d try one of those swimsuits out down at Barton Springs if the rope swing was up. I got there and it sure was! Thanks Freegun!

Stoked on the Freegun swimsuit

I then raced home got ready for work. The trip home to say good bye was by far one of the wildest. I worked until 4am, barely slept, made it on a flight eventually to North Carolina, and due to stormy weather, any and all flights out of charlotte into the tri-state area were cancelled! The delays had already made me miss the final day of the wake, and now almost the funeral the next morning! No trains, planes or buses were going to be able to get me to NY until the following evening, after grandpa would already be buried. Not accepting of this,it was 7pm on a Sunday, I rented a car, and drove 700 miles from Charlotte, NC to NY. I was delirious! Had my friends sending me funny photos and calling me to stay awake. I rolled into NJ around 4:30am, not even realizing what time it was had texted a few friends as I passed their exits. Haha sorry homies! Oddly enough, my homie George D hit me up and he had just rolled up back in to NJ from his band playing a show in Boston! Met up at a rest stop to say what up, and I think honestly that totally saved me from falling asleep at the wheel for the last leg of the trip. It was rad to see George for like 10 minutes, first time in like 10 years haha! Still shreddin’ bikes, playing music and driving the VW!

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pretty much how i saw the road signs pulling into NY as the sun was rising

700+miles, 4 coffees, a gallon of water, some flaming hot cheetos, and $41 in tolls and about 12 hours later, I made it to my mom’s in NY, changed my clothes and went straight to the funeral. I did it! I got to say good bye to grandpa yayo! I slept so hard that night. It was so hard to say goodbye, but I feel so much better that I got there in time and got to catch up with family.

He lived 89 years, was a hard worker, and a great man. When I was younger I couldn’t pronounce “Gustavo” his name too well or at all, and “Yayo” was how I managed to say it and it stuck haha! Yayo, in 1960 he moved with my grandma Olga, my aunts Liz, Janette, uncle Gus and my dad, Irving, from Colombia to NY. He worked for Pan Am, and eventually Avianca the Colombian airlines as an airplane mechanic. He was old school, very traditional values, and a man who only wanted the best for everyone. I feel like our time together wasn’t long enough, but I’m happy to have known him and even after the fact learn what an interesting life he lived. I miss him dearly, and already miss making him crack a smile over the phone..

Grandpa Yayo and I in the lobby of his place, on one of my crazy short NY visits last year, RIP gramps, I already miss ya!

Man that was rough, but it was rad to see family and catch up and be there for each other. Not even two days home in Austin, I hopped on a plane to Woodward West in Tehachapi, CA for DK Bicycles week with the campers. My friend Brittany had been meaning to go visit her friends and Juke Life teammates and so I told her I was going and that she should too! So she booked her ticket and boom! We were both at Woodward West about a week later shredding!!

First day there and we got to shred the Megaramp quarter! 28 ft tall!

I sent Mom a photo of me riding the quarter and this was her response ha!

Camp was a blast, we all learned “surfers” from my teammate Dane Beardsley, among some other new moves..

And so it was a fun week at Woodward West, I got off the plane back in Austin and went straight to work again until 4am, and then woke up and it was the Fun Fun Fun Fest Aqua Olympics! Basically a really fun PRE-party for the organizers of the Fun Fun Fun fest a huge music festival that takes place in November here in Austin with an indie stage, hip hop stage and a metal stage usually has a mini ramp and some amazing bands. This Aqua Olympics thing had a huge mega-ramp style roll-in lake-jump! It was my first time lake jumping ever!!!! I hopped on some other peoples bikes and bombed into the lake all day. Even got Mo Malone to give it a go! However, the next few days I felt like I fell out of a building haha after a few 360’s landing head first into the water I imagine that’s what did me in. ha! Oh well, here’s some sweet photos my friend Hippi Josh TRAILPIRATE.com posted:

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Sooo yeah ahhaa the adventure continues!!!!! I managed to catch up with girl Dani and her busted ass leg, turns out she broke her tibia, and had to get surgery to fix it. Pretty cool procedure they did, instead of putting a metal plate in with screws, they now use a “tight rope” which is supposed to help improve overall healing and range of motion after the fact, and will be less likely to have to be removed later on.

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I took her to her appointment to get her stitches out, and so far so good!! Here is a view of the tight rope. Healing vibes your way girl!

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Aside from that, I’ve seriously been just playing catching up. From blogs, laundry, bills, roommate beef, you name it haha it is good to be home. I will add some more photos later. Even though this one is long I can’t believe how much I still left out! Well, I will go ahead and end this long ass update with a quote from Ferris Beuller, (fun fact: this movie quote was used as the opening line before the music started in All Wheels Extreme show at cedar point this summer, for 2 weeks 3-4 times a day it will forever be engrained in my head..seemingly appropriate quote for my endless summer): “life moves pretty fast you know, if you don’t stop and take a look around once in awhile, you could miss it!”

So after Woodward West we made our way to Long Beach, CA and stayed with our friend “B-Dubbs” [ben ward]. He was an amazing host and even had pizza waiting for us!

Thanks B! He showed us around, we hit up the MLK park, drove past VIP records (totally the record shop from snoop dogg’s music video “what’s my name” they were all standing on top
Of yeahhhh!!)

Then got some food at Pike bar, a restaurant around the corner from his crib owned by the drummer of social Distortion and ran into our modwest friends who Aaron Bostrom, Burly Matt ofNeighborhood BMX shop in the LBC shared some fish and Chips with Jess while this band killed it, steel guitar rules!

Then off to Xgames we went at the Staples center downtown LA. This year marks the 7th year for girls at Xgames having a presence, doing what we do, spreading the good word of BMX to all the young gals in the crowd at the interactive ramp park who want to try BMX. The yeah zine trip ladies held it down and had a blast. We even got to break away to watch some of men’s park and street.

While we were there, we also continued to get more signatures from Xgames fans on our petition to get Women’s BMX their own category at X games!!
Learn more and sign the online version here

I spent a lot of time in the sun passing around our clipboard to get more signatures, the crowd seemed baffled that there wasn’t any girls events for BMX, and overall the feedback and support is great! Just need ESPN to recognize and acknowledge us now.

Some fliks from girls BMX sessions

Long days in the sun riding and trying to gain the attention of Xgames goers to see that girls ride BMX too PLUS having minimal credentials to get around the event was exhausting!! Totally didn’t get to call or see anyone that wasn’t at Xgames this year. I guess I will just have to come back! Haha

California was a blast, so was the Yeah Zine ! We left after BMX big Air Sunday to return the rental van back this morning. Ha! LONG ass drive but we made it!

The Yeah Zine Trip has been a blast so far. We got to meet up with Tammy Donahue and the rider formerly known as Miss Cory Coffey who is now Mrs.Cory McGee (congrats!)

It was great to catch up with the girls and ride with the campers! Woodward West totally hooked us up and let us come shred for a few days, wish we had more time to stay longer, this weeks crew was so fun!
Last night I rode the dirt jumps with Cory, Tammy, and all of the BMX campers!!!! Roasting marshmallows after around a bonfire was the jam 🙂

We gave out some product had a couple games of “foot down” this morning

We got a bag full of fresh ripe avocados on the side of the road..California freshness! Been adding those to every camp meal we remembered to bring em to!
Oh and SO random, Kareem J.Williams made an appearance at Woodward camp. Photo opp!!

Thank you Shawn Dorton, and everyone at Woodward for having us, Letting us follow you though the lines in the bowls and at the jumps, and for overall being awesome! Until next time..

This update is brought To you by 4 hour a traffic jam off of hwy 14 south en route to Long Beach. Ha! Hit ’em with it! Btw, Lindsay has “punched muffins” while on a riverboat trip and “cheeses” “deli meats”..”and it feels cool!”

After driving through the night and sleeping in Pueblo we woke up with the sun and finished the final hour of driving. We made it to Memorial park and had almost the entire place to ourselves!
I’m super bummed I broke my axel mid grind down one of the rails there and rolled my ankle pretty bad. I must have done the rail at least ten times just fine but I guess I’ve just been grinding SO much since I got those hub guards the axel finally blew up.

😦

But!! The best part of this crappy situation was that Duncan Gore, Colorado Springs legend and longtime friend came to save the day! He showed up to loan me a spare rear wheel he had until I find another axel. My DK BICYCLES teammate Dane Beardsley showed up with some other flat landers and rode with us. I mainly just took photos since my ankle blew up too

Then Duncan hooked it up and took us to Louie’s for Pizza!!! That ruled!! Thanks Dunk! Here’s him with his kiddies 🙂

FIRST off, HaPPY Fathers Day dad!!!!! and to all of you dads out there hope your day is kickin ass!

HUGE thank you to all of the locals at Walnut creek Pumptrack in Austin, TX for helpin us get the place in shape all week long!!

The beginning Of the Yeah Zine trip kicked off after my Birthday week and Mini Park, Lindsay Hale, and Angie Marino made the trip to Austin to start the trip. We spent the last day and a half riding and filming around Austin, and got on the road today for Colorado to pick up our good friend Jessica Ausec.
Go to Http://YEAHZINE.COM to follow web updates and Follow @yeahhhhzine on twitter.
Thank you to Terry Seeberg for donating some scrilla for the hot dogs chips and cases of water at the jam!
And to Beecam for bringin her BBQ and being grill master while also shreddin 🙂

Here is a nice parting shot from the road before we headed into some rain in Sweetwater, TX..

Although today was a casual 100 degrees, I still managed to get a few things done after a wild weekend and also help some people out along the way.

I had an amazing Saturday surprise with Bee and Dani, I somehow amazingly got my shift covered last minute for a surprise girls night/ early birthday celebration for me the girls got me tickets to see the Blowfly at the Scoot Inn!
It was rot rally weekend still, and the plan was to finish up our denim vests and ride bikes down the strip before the show ha!
The lineup for the evening included some pre-gaming bottles of fun. Here beecAm speeds up the vest decorations and got my iron maiden back piece sewn on in 5min woo!

By the way, I am WAY pumped on the cheeseburger I scored for my vest.
The Blowfly and his band were in full effect, I think the three of us gals had the most fun at that show. We danced our asses off and even hung out and poached some photos with blowfly and his band.
Denim vests!

Blowfly himself!

Ha!

An unforgettable evening to say the least! Thank you girls!

Ugh! This morning I was on my way to pick up some homies to go to the pumptrack, I am heading northbound on Comal st., and this lady heading eastbound doesn’t even look or stop and cuts across and almost t-boned me! She totally would have but I leaned on the horn jammed on the brakes and power-skid 180’d out of the way. The car behind me skidded into on coming to avoid hittin me and this dumb ass lady just kept going!
That was the first time in my life sans rain or snow that I had ever done a 180 in my car. Thank god for Subaru’s reliable braking and turn radius abilities! I was livid and shaking.. Did that just happen? Pay attention people!

Picked up two homies who are attempting to stay sober and got them out hauling buckets of water, digging and sweating out all of the bad while patching up the pump track for this weekends jam at Walnut Creek!

Huge thanks to those dudes, and beecam for going up there to help out!

We are all trying to put in a few hours at least a few days this week to help
Get stuff running nice 🙂 can’t wait!yeah zine issue 5 is gonna be sweet! And so is the Yeah Trip! Kicking off from the jam! Yeehaw 🙂